Over the past generation we have seen considerable change in the understanding of the importance of play to children; the ways in which we as adults can improve the environment (as well as the culture of our country) to make it a place where every child has free access to a choice of quality play opportunities within their community. Over the past year Play Wales has continued to work hard to contribute to change in the physical environment and societal attitudes. We have worked with the Welsh Government, our members and constituency to prepare the ground for the Commencement Order of the first part of the new duty placed on Local Authorities by the Children and Families (Wales) Measure 2010 to assess sufficiency of play opportunities for children. This development has resulted in a continued shift in emphasis of Play Wales’ work. Whilst still advocating and campaigning for children’s play, Play Wales has spent time addressing how it might best contribute to the successive steps of the process turning legislation into a reality on the ground and how we might best support Local Authorities to make best advantage of this development. In some respects this has been less of a challenge than we had anticipated with officials across all Local Authority departments engaging with a considerable degree of good will, recognising that whilst supporting children’s play is not their primary function, they do have a contribution to make in the achievement of the objectives Welsh Government has set.
Director’s report
The development and delivery of playwork qualifications has become part of Play Wales’ core work and Play Wales has continued to deliver Level 2 qualifications on a full cost recovery basis in partnership with the YMCA Community College. Play Wales was also successful in winning a Welsh Government European funded, Sector Priority Fund Programme contract from SkillsActive to develop Level 3 Playwork: Principles into Practice (P3) qualifications and the learning materials for the Award which has enabled us to deliver a suite of qualifications to meet workforce expectations. The highlight of the year was the 50th Anniversary International Play Association World Conference which we hosted in Cardiff; attended by 450 delegates from 37 nations. It was a resounding success; only made so by the dedication, commitment and energy of present and past staff who joined us at Cardiff City Hall in July. The success of the conference was in no small part due to the commitment and energy of Gill Evans who excelled in her role as Conference Manager. Unfortunately Gill lost her battle with cancer shortly after the conference. She has left a large gap in our organisation that we are gently working to fill. We look forward to the coming year with a strong sense of challenge as we work to support the roll out of the Measure.
Mike Greenaway Director 7